GNU Endorsed Linux Distributions.

[shome]

http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html

Do any of you use any of these distributions, and if so has it hindered any of your productivity, or added to it ?

I'm still fairly new to *nix, so have settled with ubuntu currently, due to it's simplicity and easy transition to linux, but the more I read Stallman's lectures, and educate myself with FSF, and GNU, I don't like some of the 'proprietary' measures embedded in distro's like Ubuntu, with Kanonical, etc.

I ran a quick live cd of trisquel, and I like the look and feel of it. But going forward, I don't think they have taken hold of alot of the proprietary wireless chipset's yet, so it has hindered my decision of running GNU full time.

Back in the early 00's, when slack was pretty much the hacker's choice, I ran it for awhile and got some great experience using it as a web server. But now I read by GNU,

"Slackware has the two usual problems: there's no clear policy about what software can be included, and nonfree blobs are included in Linux, the kernel.  It also ships with the nonfree image-viewing program xv.  Of course, with no firm policy against them, more nonfree programs could get in at any time.  There is an unofficial list of nonfree software in Slackware."

[Syntax990]

If you are a full anarchist at heart, then use one of these free distros. I personally love the free software world. I love how people come together to make something for free, I love the effort put into free programs and I love how they aren't treated like a product. The only non-free programs I'm guilty of using are pretty much drivers and a few games that I run. I doubt I'll ever become completely free.

Do any of you use any of these distributions, and if so has it hindered any of your productivity, or added to it ?

Every operating system has it's faults, Windows/Mac users leave Linux because their productivity is affected. Productivity is a subjective word, and the majority of people tend to refer to productivity as media and office tasks. Productivity literally is just the average measure of the efficiency of production.

Your Productivity will become slower when switching to any operating system, and these free distros will have far less software available if you wish to keep them free.

Productivity around desktop computing orientates around how you use your computer. The 'Unix' way is something that grinds into your head the more you use unix-like operating systems.

I'm still fairly new to *nix, so have settled with ubuntu currently, due to it's simplicity and easy transition to linux, but the more I read Stallman's lectures, and educate myself with FSF, and GNU, I don't like some of the 'proprietary' measures embedded in distro's like Ubuntu, with Kanonical, etc.

I like your ideology. +1 Cookies for you!

[L0aD1nG]

Well if freedom is what matter for you, you should for sure stay away from Canonical(Ubuntu).

But I really doubt if you can make it without any "nonfree" software at all. For example if you pick the one that is Debian based from the list, I can ensure you that you will be out of Flash Player, as flash player is a nonfree package on official Debian repos and its named "flashplugin-nonfree". Being around without flash-player at all, will for sure affect you productivity right?

Now I won't preffer something specific, as I haven't really tested any of those distros.


On the other hand if you change your mind and think you can do with nonfree package and that they will not affect your ethics or something so hard.... Just pick one of those three :

• Debian
• Gentoo
• Arch Linux

Probably the best choices out there really.